Spiral Starecase – More Today Than Yesterday / Baby What I Mean 45 (Outta Sight) 7″ Vinyl

Pat Upton’s California one-hit wonders Spiral Starecase. The band, from Sacramento, were formed in 1964 as The Fydallions and were signed to Columbia in ’68 by A&R man Gary Usher. It was Usher who pushed for the name change to the Spiral Starecase, after the film but with a deliberate misspelling. Usher also produced their first singles: an upbeat cover of the Drifters soul workout “Baby What I Mean” and “I’ll Run” coupled with “Inside, Outside, Upside Down”, a Mod/Soul collectable by Al Torino. But, it was Upton’s own composition “More Today Than Yesterday” that propelled the band to #12 in the Billboard Hot 100, selling over one million copies and scoring a gold disc. An album of the same name followed plus a couple more singles but they were unable to repeat their earlier success and within 18 months they disbanded.